THE head of Britain’s chambers of commerce called for the creation of a “business bank” during a fact-finding visit to Huddersfield.

John Longworth, director-general of the British Chamber of Commerce, also said it was time to focus on “the real economy” as the way to tackle the credit crunch and the eurozone crisis.

And he said chambers had to be at the forefront of championing business as the solution to the country’s current economic problems.

Mr Longworth said: “There is a big disconnect among opinion formers, government and the chattering classes around the importance of enterprise and wealth creation on the one hand and spending money on the other.

“Without wealth creation and enterprise we can’t have things like education and healthcare.

“But even at the most senior level there is a view that taxpayers’ money comes out of thin air and doesn’t have to be generated.”

Mr Longworth, whose background includes senior posts with the Co-op, Tesco and Asda as well as running smaller businesses, said: “A quarter of the economy is the public sector and banking. Three-quarters is everything else. We have largely forgotten about that three-quarters.”

Speaking to members of the Lockwood-based Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, he outlined the BCC’s strategic priorities – to promote international trade, boost chamber membership and services across the UK and improve the skills of the workforce.

He called for the creation of a “business bank” to lend to companies where high street banks had proved reluctant.

“A lot of exporters were growing quite rapidly. The main concern was cash flow – partly because their customers were not paying up quickly, but also because they could not get access to capital.

“A separate business bank could lend to those organisations who provide more of a risk. The US has had a business bank for many years and they were partly responsible for the growth of Microsoft and Apple.”

Mr Longworth also called for more investment in roads, railways, airports and digital networks as well as action to cut red tape to underpin the “real economy”.

After the meeting, Mr Longworth and Mid Yorkshire chamber officials visited centrifuge manufacturer Thomas Broadbent and Son, based at Queen Street South, to hear some of the issues affecting its business.

Director Simon Broadbent said the company was quite busy, but had struggled to secure contract finance for overseas contracts which were normally financed through the bank.

“We feel our overseas competitors get a lot more financial support for their contract work,” he said.

The company also had problems getting export licences processed speedily through the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). “We are expected by our customers to respond within days and BIS responds within months,” he said.

Mr Broadbent also raised the question of tax relief for firms employing young people and the bureaucratic impact of the government’s anti-corruption legislation.